Observations: The Oxford Community Arts Center
"The arts center began as a dream in 1999. OxAct, the local drama group, saw the empty building on the corner of High and College Streets as a potential home."
The Oxford Community Arts Center (OCAC) is a real treasure for our town. About to celebrate its 25th anniversary, it has drawn us together in all kinds of ways and has fostered not just the arts, but a powerful sense of community as well.
The arts center began as a dream in 1999. OxAct, the local drama group, saw the empty building on the corner of High and College Streets as a potential home. This was the old Oxford College for Women, founded in 1849 and called different names over the years. Sold to Miami in 1928, it served as a dorm, first for women, later for graduate students. Miami finally closed the building in 1998.
A group of interested citizens formed to talk to the university, and asked Jim Michael, a local lawyer and member of OxAct, to work with the university to draft a lease.
In 2001, the OCAC was underway. The group of interested citizens who were behind this effort served as a steering committee as formal procedures began to take shape. Sarah Michael became one of the first board presidents for the new organization, and during her 6 or 7 year tenure helped it get off the ground. In 2003, the OCAC hired Caroline Croswell as the first executive director and she served admirably for 18 years as the center as we know it took shape.
Some ideas worked; some did not. One successful proposal was for artists’ studios on the 3rd floor, and those provided an early, though modest, source of income. Groups in the community came forth to help. The Des Fleurs Garden Club began to oversee care of the grounds, which made a real difference. The center began to offer the beautiful ballroom for weddings and other functions. The project was underway.
But the building was in sorry shape. Three capital campaigns provided funds for necessary renovation. The first provided an accessible building entrance, elevator installation and restroom improvements. The second provided air conditioning on the first floor and infrastructure upgrades. The third included landscaping, window repair and replacement and other exterior work on the building.
Each of us involved in whatever way with the OCAC has a personal story. Back in the early years, I was teaching a first-year honors seminar at Miami on the 1960s, and I told the students, back in that time, that we did things – we protested the war, worked for civil rights and participated in community organizations. Perhaps the class might do something like that. The students chose to work at the arts center, and so one night a week for the entire semester, we all gathered there. We chipped old cement off basement walls – a filthy task – and painted the kitchen for the first time in years.
Over the years, I have done a variety of things at the OCAC. I’ve taught several courses there for the Institute for Learning in Retirement. I’ve done a number of concerts, both with a group and on my own. And now, I’m fortunate to serve on the board, impressed with the extraordinary effort of Heidi Schiller, our executive director, who makes everything work.
I have been delighted to come to concerts given by our wonderful local musicians, singer Lisa Biales and violinist Doug Hamilton. I have taken great joy in seeing the huge turnouts for such events as “Howl at the Moon,” “Empty Bowls” and most recently, the now-annual “Chocolate Meltdown.”
And, as I have spoken to people about the center, I have been overwhelmed by their enthusiastic comments. Sarah Michael told me, “Seeing the arts center thrive gives me tremendous joy to see how a small community comes together to preserve a historic building and to promote the arts,” and voiced her real pleasure at having been a part of that effort. Jim Michael said, “It’s astonishing to me to see how central this place has become to our community.” Roslyn Benson, current president of the board, noted that when she became involved, “I found a whole community that cared about the arts and cared about each other that I had never experienced before.”
The OCAC is now embarking on a capital campaign to further renovate the building and provide space for a host of new and even more exciting activities. It deserves the wholehearted support of all of us as we continue to make our community an even better place to live.
Allan M. Winkler is a University Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Miami University, where he taught for three decades. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Oxford Free Press.
